1 For developments in Chinese world history writing in the 1980s, see Leif Littrup, ‘World history with Chinese characteristics’, Culture and History, 5 (suppl.), 1989, pp. 39–64. For more recent developments see Luo Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history in the People's Republic of China since the 1980s’, Journal of World History, 18, 3, 2007, pp. 325–50; Dominic Sachsenmaier, ‘Debates on world history and global history: the neglected parameters of Chinese approaches’, Travers: Zeitschrift für Geschichte, 40, 3, 2007, pp. 67–84; Edward Q. Wang, ‘The rise of great powers = the rise of China? The transition from world history to global history in the PRC and its political implications’, unpublished paper for the ‘Global history, globally’ symposium, Harvard University, 7–9 February 2008.

2 Suisheng Zhao, ‘Chinese intellectuals’ quest for national greatness and nationalistic writing in the 1990s’, China Quarterly, 152, December 1997, pp. 725–45.

3 Jiayan Mi, ‘The visual imagined communities: media state, virtual citizenship and television in Heshang (River Elegy)’, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 22, 2005, pp. 327–40.

4 Chen Xiaomei, ‘Occidentalism as counterdiscourse: “He Shang” in post-Mao China’, Critical Inquiry, 18, 4, 1992, pp. 686–712.

5 International exchange and study abroad exert an enormous influence on the development of the humanities and social sciences in China, especially among the younger generation (Timothy Cheek, ‘The new Chinese intellectual: globalized, disoriented, reoriented’, in Lionel M. Jensen and Timothy B. Weston, eds., China's transformations: the stories beyond the headlines, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, pp. 265–84). However, the traces that internationalization leaves on Chinese scholarship have to be examined separately for each discipline and sub-discipline. I have discussed the complexities of internationalization processes with regard to women's studies in ‘The internationalization of China's women's studies’, Berliner China-Hefte 20, May 2001, pp. 79–100; and ‘“Gender trouble”: feminism in China under the impact of Western theory and the spatialization of identity’, positions: east asia cultures critique, forthcoming. In the case of world history, mainstream theory production – which is at the centre of this article – seems to be controlled by the older generation and, in spite of the use of ‘imported’ concepts, is oriented to a nationally defined discursive space.

6 Cheek, ‘New Chinese intellectual’.

7 Due to space constraints, my analysis focuses on the history of the modern world since 1500, which has also been at the centre of recent discussions in China.

8 Littrup, ‘World history’; Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history’.

9 See, in particular, the discussion on ‘Quanqiu shiguan dui Zhongguo shixue de yingxiang (The influence of the global historical perspective on China's historiography)’, Xueshu yanjiu (Academic Research), 2005, issue 1; the discussion on ‘Quanqiuhua yu quanqiu shiguan (Globalization and the global historical perspective)’, Shixue lilun yanjiu (Theoretical Research in History), 2005, issue 1; and the discussion of ‘Shijie shi he shijieshi tixi (World history and the system of world history)’, Shixue lilun yanjiu, 2005, issue 3. All these discussions include articles on conceptual issues written by leading scholars of world history.

10 The following section is based on Part 1 of Nicola Spakowski, ‘China in the world: constructions of a Chinese identity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’, in Vanessa Künnemann and Ruth Mayer, eds., Transpacific interactions: the United States and China, 1880–1950, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009 (forthcoming). See also Qi Shirong, ‘Woguo shijieshi xueke de lishi huigu yu qiantu zhanwang (The history and prospects of the discipline of world history in China)’, in Zhongguo shixuehui, Yunnan daxue (Chinese Historical Society, Yunnan University), eds., 21 shiji Zhongguo lishixue zhanwang (The prospects of Chinese historiography in the twenty-first century), Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2003, pp. 348–53; Yu Pei, ‘Hongyang Zhongguo shijieshi yanjiu de minzu jingshen: jinian Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan shijie lishi yanjiusuo chengli 40 zhou nian (Praise the national spirit of Chinese world history research: commemorating the foundation of the Institute of World History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences forty years ago)’, Shijie lishi, 5, 2004, pp. 4–12; and short sections in Western works that have a different temporal focus (see notes 1 and 20).

11 For the exemplary approach to history in general and its manifestations in Western historiography in particular, see Reinhart Koselleck, ‘Historia magistra vitae: Über die Auflösung des Topos im Horizont neuzeitlich bewegter Geschichte (Historia magistra vitae: on the dissolution of the topos in the light of changeable modern history)’, in Hermann Braun and Manfred Riedel, eds., Natur und Geschichte: Karl Löwith zum 70. Geburtstag (Nature and history: for Karl Löwith on his seventieth birthday), Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1967, pp. 196–218. For exemplary thinking in the Chinese historical tradition, see Spakowski, Nicola, Helden, Monumente, Traditionen: Nationale Identität und historisches Bewußtsein in der VR China (Heroes, monuments, traditions: national identity and historical consciousness in the People's Republic of China), Hamburg: LIT, 1999, pp. 46–8Google Scholar.

12 Quoted in Roland Felber, ‘Das Deutschlandbild Kang Youweis von der Hunderttagereform 1898 bis zur Xinhai-Revolution 1911 (Kang Youwei's image of Germany from the Hundred Days Reform of 1898 and the Xinhai Revolution of 1911)’, in Kuo Heng-yü and Mechthild Leutner, eds., Deutschland und China: Beiträge des Zweiten Internationalen Symposiums zur Geschichte der deutsch–chinesischen Beziehungen Berlin 1991 (Germany and China: contributions to the second international symposium on German–Chinese relations, Berlin 1991), Munich: Minerva, 1994, pp. 179–80.

13 Liu Yajun, ‘Wan Qing xueren “shijie lishi” guannian de bianqian (The changing conceptualization of world history among scholars of the late Qing)’, Shixue yuekan, 10, 2005, p. 99.

14 This trend is best reflected in the titles of world history writing of the time listed in Yu Pei, ‘Hongyang Zhongguo shijieshi yanjiu’.

15 On the genre of wangguo shi, see also Karl, Rebecca E., Staging the world: Chinese nationalism at the turn of the twentieth century, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002, pp. 162–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Yu Pei, ‘Hongyang Zhongguo shijieshi yanjiu’, pp. 6–7.

17 Wang, Edward Q., Inventing China through history: the May Fourth approach to historiography, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001.Google Scholar

18 Ping-chen Hsiung, ‘Moving the world according to a shifted “I”: world history texts in Republican China and post-war Taiwan’, Berliner China-Hefte, 26, 2004, pp. 38–52.

19 Dorothea A. L. Martin, The making of a Sino-Marxist world view. Perceptions and interpretations of world history in the People's Republic of China, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1990, pp. 8–9; Sachsenmaier, ‘Debates’, p. 71; Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, p. 13. The relationship between national and world history is complex and goes beyond the scope of this article. Scholars of Chinese and world history share a national outlook and must tackle the same fundamental questions, such as the relation between universalism and particularism (Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, ‘Weltgeschichte und chinesische Geschichte: Die chinesische Historiographie des 20. Jahrhunderts zwischen Universalität und Partikularität (World history and Chinese history: twentieth-century Chinese historiography between universalism and particularism)’, in Margarete Grandner, Dietmar Rothermund, and Wolfgang Schwentker, eds., Globalisierung und Globalgeschichte (Globalization and global history), Vienna: Mandelbaum Verlag, 2005, pp. 139–61). At the same time, departmental divisions, different functions in processes of identity-building and political legitimization, and different discursive legacies lead to a division between the two historical sub-fields.

20 For Chinese world history writing between 1949 and 1978, see Kolonko, Petra, Im fremden Spiegel: Weltgeschichte und deutsche Geschichte in der VR China (In the mirror of the foreign: world history and German history in the People's Republic of China), Munich: Minerva, 1988Google Scholar; Ralph Croizier, ‘World history in the People's Republic of China’, Journal of World History, 1, 2, 1990, pp. 151–69; Martin, The making.

21 For the change from an exemplary to a genetic concept of history in Western historiography since the late eighteenth century, see Koselleck, ‘Historia magistra vitae’. For the two approaches in Chinese historiography and the relation between them, see Spakowski, Helden, Monumente, Traditionen, pp. 46–8.

22 The Cultural Revolution is a separate chapter marked by the destruction of academic institutions and by publications that reflected a Maoist ideological line. For details see the relevant sections in Kolonko, Im fremden Spiegel; Croizier, ‘World history’; and Martin, The making.

23 Littrup, ‘World history’, p. 47.

24 Hou Jianxin, ‘Shijie lishi yanjiu sanshi nian (Thirty years of world history research)’, Lishi yanjiu, 6, 2008, pp. 18–25.

25 For biographical information on Wu Yujin and the evolution of his ideas, see Littrup, ‘World history’ and Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history’.

26 Wu Yujin, Wu Yujin xueshu lunzhu zixuan ji (Collection of the academic writings of Wu Yujin), Beijing: Shoudu shifan daxue chubanshe, 1995, p. 52, quoted in Wang Dunshu, ‘Lüe lun shijie shi xueke jianshe, shijie shiguan yu shijie shi tixi (A discussion of the construction of the discipline of world history, the world history perspective, and the system of world history)’, Lishi jiaoxue, 4, 2005, p. 11.

27 Littrup, ‘World history’; Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history’.

28 Littrup, ‘World history’, p. 54; Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history’, p. 336.

29 For details on the translation and reception of Western works by Chinese world historians since the 1980s (and even before), see Xu, pp. 327–28, n. 11; Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, pp. 19–20.

30 For the quantitative increase in academic publications, see Hou Jianxin, ‘Shijie lishi yanjiu sanshi nian’, p. 19.

31 Wang Tai, ‘Zhongguo shijie shi xueke tixi de san da xueshu lilun ji qi tansuo (The three big academic theoretical paths of China's academic system of world history and their exploration)’, Shixue lilun yanjiu, 2, 2006, pp. 20–9.

32 This trend is best reflected in reports about research trends and conferences in the field of world history. See, for instance, Hou Jianxin, ‘Shijie lishi yanjiu sanshi nian’; Zheng Wei, ‘Zhongguo shijieshi yanjiu luntan di san jie xueshu nianhui zongshu (Report on the third annual conference of the Chinese Forum of World History Research)’, Shijie lishi, 2, 2007, pp. 140–3. The national subdivisions of world history, on the other hand, are also the units where new approaches such as environmental history, history of technology, urban history, gender and women's history, history of religion, demography and family, or human rights are applied: see Zhang Hongyi, ‘Shiji zhi jiao de wo guo shijie xiandai shi yanjiu (Chinese research in modern world history at the turn of the century)’, Lishi jiaoxue, 9, 2004, p. 15.

33 Luo Jing and Wang Xianglin, ‘Zhongguo shixuejie jiaowang wenti yanjiu zongshu (Review of Chinese historians’ research on the problem of exchange)’, Huaiyin shifan xueyuan xuebao (zhexue shehui kexue ban), 2, 2005, p. 229.

34 For modernization in the field of world history, see also Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history’, pp. 339–40; Sachsenmaier, ‘Debates’, p. 75–7; Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, pp. 11–13.

35 Luo Rongqu, ‘Zhongguo jin bai nian lai xiandaihua sichao yanbian de fansi (dai xu) (Reflections on the evolution of Chinese ideas of modernization over the last hundred years (in place of a foreword))’, in Luo Rongqu, ed., Cong ‘xihua’ dao ‘xiandaihua’ (From ‘Westernization’ to ‘modernization’), Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1990, pp. 1–35; Lin Beidian and Dong Zhenghua, ‘Xiandaihua yanjiu zai Zhongguo de xingqi yu fazhan (The rise and development of modernization research in China)’, Lishi yanjiu, 5, 1998, pp. 150–64.

36 For the evolution of the Four Modernizations since the 1950s, see Xia Xinping, ‘Cong gongyehua dao quan fangwei xiandaihua: dui Zhongguo xiandaihua mubiao fazhan bianhua de lishe kaocha (From industrialization to all-round modernization: a historical analysis of the development of and changes in China's goals of modernization)’, Ningxia dangxiao xuebao, 9, 2005, pp. 47–50.

37 For political and ideological reorientations in the late 1970s, see Fewsmith, Joseph, Dilemmas of reform in China: political conflict and economic debate, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1994Google Scholar; Yan, Sun, The Chinese reassessment of socialism, 1976–1992, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995Google Scholar.

38 For a discussion of these adaptations up to 1992, see Sun, Chinese reassessment.

39 Zhaochen, Zou, Mei, Jiang, and Jingli, Deng, Xin shiqi Zhongguo shixue sichao (Trends in historical studies in China in the new era), Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 2001, p. 10Google Scholar.

40 Ibid., p. 110. For Luo Rongqu's contribution to world history writing, see also Littrup, ‘World history’, pp. 54–7.

41 Lin and Dong, ‘Xiandaihua yanjiu zai Zhongguo’, p. 156. The Seventh Five Year Plan also supported research on the history of modernization in China (ibid.).

42 Zou, Jiang, and Deng, Xin shiqi Zhongguo shixue sichao, p. 111.

43 Ibid., pp. 114, 117.

44 Quoted from Qian Chengdan, ‘Xiandaihua yu Zhongguo de shijie jin xiandaishi yanjiu (Modernization and China's research on the history of the modern world)’, Lishi yanjiu, 2, 2008, p. 35.

45 The nature of the term ‘modernization’ is contested. Qian Chengdan claims it to be neutral (‘Xiandaihua’, p. 35). Li Shian sees it as potentially Eurocentric and ‘capitalist’: ‘Xiandaihua neng fou zuo wei shijie jin xiandaishi xueke xin tixi de zhuxian (Can modernization become the main thread of a new academic system of modern world history?)’, Lishi yanjiu, 2, 2008, pp. 36–8. For an overview of opinions on this question, see Lin and Dong, ‘Xiandaihua yanjiu zai Zhongguo’, pp. 159–60.

46 See also Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, pp. 10–13.

47 Qian Chengdan, ‘Shijie jin xiandai shi de zhuxian shi xiandaihua (Modernization is the main thread of modern world history)’, Lishi jiaoxue, 2, 2001, pp. 5–10.

48 Qian Chengdan, ‘Guanyu kaizhan “shijieshi” yanjiu de ji dian sikao (A few thoughts on developing “world history” research)’, Shixue lilun yanjiu, 3, 2005, p. 7.

49 Qian Chengdan, ‘Xiandaihua’, p. 35.

50 Zou, Jiang, and Deng, Xin shiqi Zhongguo shixue sichao.

51 Lin and Dong, ‘Xiandaihua yanjiu zai Zhongguo’, pp. 157–8.

52 See, in particular, ibid., pp. 162–4.

53 Ibid.

54 For details of the event, see ‘Zhengzhi ju di jiu ci jiti xuexi: jiaoshou Zhongnanhai jiang da guo xingshuai shi (The ninth collective study session of the Politburo: the Zhongnanhai is lectured on the rise and fall of the great powers)’, news.sohu.com, 4 December 2003, http://news.sohu.com/2003/12/04/43/news216474302.shtml (consulted 3 May 2006).

55 Bonnie Glaser and Evan S. Medeiros, ‘The changing ecology of foreign policy-making in China: the ascension and demise of the theory of “peaceful rise”’, China Quarterly, 190, 2007, pp. 291–310.

56 ‘Zhengzhi ju di jiu ci’.

57 Quoted in ‘Zhengzhi ju di jiu ci’.

58 Qi Shirong, ed., 15 shiji yilai shijie jiu qiang de lishi yanbian (The historical evolution of the nine world powers since the fifteenth century), Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe, 2005.

59 For obvious reasons, however, Chinese specialists on Russia are interested in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ‘lessons’ to be drawn from it (Neil Munro, ‘Democracy postponed: Chinese learning from the Soviet collapse’, China aktuell, 4, 2008, pp. 31–61).

60 For the details of the production process, see Ren Xuean, ‘Dianshi jilupian “Daguo jueqi” zong biandao Ren Xuean: yi ci jiannan de bashe (The director of the TV documentary series “The rise of the great powers”, Ren Xuean: an arduous journey)’, cctv.com, 27 November 2006, http://finance.cctv.com/special/C16860/20061127/102052.shtml (consulted 10 September 2008). The text of the script is available in Xuean, Ren and Jin, Chen, Daguo jueqi: CCTV shier ji daxing dianshi jilupian: jieshuoci (The rise of the great powers: CCTV documentary in twelve parts: a commentary), Beijing: Zhongguo minzhu fazhi chubanshe, 2007Google Scholar. For additional information and an analysis of the series in the context of world history writing in China, see also Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’. On Qian Chengdan's role as ‘mastermind’, see ibid., p. 9.

61 Ren Xuean, ‘Dianshi jilupian “Daguo jueqi”’.

62 Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, p. 3.

63 ‘Cong “Daguo jueqi” kan xilie jilu pian de fazhan qushi (Seeing the development trends of documentary series from “The rise of the great powers”)’, 26 July 2007, http://finance.QQ.com/a/2070726/000482.htm (consulted 5 June 2008).

64 Ren Xuean, ‘Dianshi jilupian “Daguo jueqi”’.

65 Portugal and Spain are covered in a single part; two parts are devoted to each of Great Britain, Russia/the Soviet Union, and the United States; the final part provides the conclusion.

66 The following exposition is based on an analysis of the script (Ren Xuean and Chen Jin, Daguo jueqi).

67 Guoqing could be translated as ‘national conditions’. It is hard to trace the origins of the term because it is ubiquitous in political discourse. Generally speaking, it is used to emphasize the particularity of China, which then justifies a rejection of universalist claims and outside interventions.

68 Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, p. 10.

69 Ren Xuean and Chen Jin, Daguo jueqi, p. 252.

70 See the extremely positive review by Lou Hejun, ‘“Daguo jueqi’ heyi jueqi?” (Why is “The rise of the great powers” so successful?)’, Shehui guancha, 7, 2007, pp. 60–1.

71 For instance, the doyen of German history, Heinrich August Winkler, who had been interviewed for the series and was later confronted with the positive portrayal of German history that the film-makers had created, complained: ‘I had tried to contradict any attempt to make the German case a success story’ (‘Historiker Heinrich August Winkler: dieser Bismarck widerspräche meinen Ausführungen diametral (Historian Heinrich August Winkler: this Bismarck would be diametrically opposed to my own explanation)’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 December 2006, p. 35).

72 For critical voices in the Rise of the great powers debate, see Zi Zhongjun, ‘Shuo bu jin de daguo xingshuai (The inexhaustible rise and decline of great powers)’, Nangangchuang, 3, 2007, pp. 42–4; Wang Xiaoling, ‘Wang quan zhuanzhi shi daguo jueqi de yuanyin ma? Dui xilie dainshi zhuanti pian “Daguo jueqi” de zhiyi (Is the autocratic power of the monarch the reason for the rise of great powers? Doubts about the TV series “The rise of great powers”)’, Xueshujie, 6, 2007, pp. 95–101.

73 ‘“Fuxing zhi lu”: huishou guoqu, zhanwang weilai (The way to revival: looking back into history, looking into the future)’, 10 October 2007, http://finance.cctv.com/special/C19478/20071010/113742_1.shtml (consulted 10 June 2008).

74 See also Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, p. 16.

75 For details on the series and its background see ‘Fuxing zhi lu’; Yu Du, ‘Qishi hongda zhizuo jingliang: ping zhongyang jianshitai bochu de zhenglun pian “Fuxing zhi lu” (Tremendous force and excellent production: a review of the political series “The way to revival” broadcast by CCTV)’, Junshi jizhe, 12, 2007, p. 44.

76 The script and additional texts, plus a DVD of the series, have been published in three volumes as Zhongyang jianshi tai ‘Fuxing zhi lu’ jiemu zu (China Central Television programme group for ‘The way to revival’), eds., Fuxing zhi lu (The way to revival), 3 vols., Beijing: Zhongguo minzhu fazhi chubanshe, 2008.

77 Discussions of the ‘Beijing consensus’ and a ‘Chinese model’ are not restricted to China; positions taken in the debate are too diverse to be listed here. The discussion on the ‘Beijing consensus’ was sparked by Joshua Cooper Ramo, ‘The Beijing consensus’, London: The Foreign Policy Centre, 2004, http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/244.pdf (consulted 15 July 2009). For an overview of the ‘models’ that are being discussed, see ‘“Beijing gongshi” yu Zhongguo moshi (The ‘Beijing consensus’ and the Chinese model)’, Renmin luntan, 240, 2008, pp. 20–3.

78 See, for instance, Yu Weimin, ‘“Zhongxin guan” yu “zhongxin lun”’ (“Centralized perspective” and “theory of a centre”)’, Shixue lilun yanjiu, 3, 2005, p. 11.

79 On the problem of Eurocentrism in Chinese world history writing, see also Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history’, pp. 337–49 and Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, pp. 13–28.

80 See my discussion of this trend in the field of Chinese women studies in Spakowski, ‘Gender trouble’.

81 See Yu Pei, ‘Hongyang Zhongguo shijieshi yanjiu’; Yu Pei, ‘Quanqiushi: minzu lishi jiyi zhong de quanqiushi (Global history: a global history within national historical memory)’, Shixue lilun yanjiu, 1, 2006, pp. 18–30.

82 Yu Pei, ‘Quanqiushi’, p. 30.

83 He Fangchuan, ‘Shijie shi tixi chuyi (A modest proposal on the system of world history)’, Shixue lilun yanjiu, 3, 2005, p. 6. See also Yu Weimin, ‘“Zhongxin guan” yu “zhongxin lun”’.

84 For detailed accounts of the translation and reception of these authors in China, see Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history’, pp. 343–9; Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, p. 22–5.

85 See Wang, ‘Rise of great powers’, p. 28 and my discussion of this problem in the conclusion.

86 Frank, Andre Gunder, ReOrient: global economy in the Asian age, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998.Google Scholar

87 Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history’, p. 347.

88 Liu Jun, ‘Quanqiuhua yu quanqiuhua shiguan: yi zhong chang shiduan de guandian (Globalization and a historical perspective on globalization: a long-term viewpoint)’, Shixue lilun yanjiu, 1, 2005, p. 19; Yu Weimin, ‘“Zhongxin guan” yu “zhongxin lun”’, p. 12.

89 He Fangchuan, ‘Shijie shi tixi’, p. 6.

90 See, for instance, Qian Chengdan's list of four ‘cultural circles’: an ‘East Asian cultural circle’ (based on Confucianism), an ‘Indian cultural circle’ (based on Hinduism), a ‘West Asian/North African cultural circle’ (based on Islam), and a ‘European cultural circle’ (based on Christianity) (Qian Chengdan, ‘Guanyu kaizhan “shijieshi” yanjiu’, p. 9).

91 See, for instance, Liu Jun, ‘Quanqiuhua yu quanqiuhua shiguan’, p. 19; Yu Weimin, ‘“Zhongxin guan” yu “zhongxin lun”’, p. 12.

92 Lin and Dong, ‘Xiandaihua yanjiu zai Zhongguo’, p. 160–2. See also Qian Chengdan, ‘Xiandaihua’, p. 35, on the multiple paths of modernization.

93 Wang Tai, ‘Zhongguo shijie shi’, pp. 21–2. The question of the ‘name’ of world history is a reference to the question of the dominant system in world history, with ‘capitalism’ or ‘socialism’ as the possible answers.

94 See, for instance, Qian Chengdan, ‘Guanyu kaizhan “shijieshi” yanjiu’, p. 8. On Wu Yujin, see Xu, ‘Reconstructing world history’, p. 332.

95 Yu Jinyao, ‘Shijie jindai shi shi zibenzhuyi shidai de lishi: du Pan Runhan, Lin Chengjie de “Shijie jindai shi” (Modern world history is the history of the capitalist age: reading Pan Runhan's and Lin Chengjie's “History of the modern world”)’, Shijie lishi, 6, 2000, pp. 95–104.

96 Yu Jinyao, ‘“Zibenzhuyi” yu 1500 nian yilai de shijie lishi (“Capitalism” and world history since 1500)’, Xuehai, 3, 2007, pp. 92–4.

97 Ibid., p. 93.

98 Ibid., p. 94.

99 The idea of coexistence is based on Deng Xiaoping's concept of ‘one world, two systems’ (yi qiu liang zhi): see Liu Jianwu, ‘Zhongguo tese shehuizhuyi ruogan wenti yanjiu zongshu, xia (Review of research on some problems of socialism with Chinese characteristics, part II)’, Dangdai shijie yu shehuizhuyi, 2, 2007, p. 152. See also Fang Mei on the entanglement, cooperation, and convergence of the two systems: Fang Mei, ‘Guanyu Zhongguo zai quanqiuhua jincheng zhong jinchi bing gonggu Makesizhuyi zhuliu yishi xingtai diwei de sikao (Reflections on how China maintains and consolidates Marxism as the mainstream ideology during the process of globalization)’, Dangdai shijie yu shehuizhuyi, 3, 2007, pp. 61–62. More elaborate stances on the problem can be found in the wide field of theoretical studies of socialism.

100 The theory of the ‘early stage of socialism’ was adopted as state ideology in 1987. It was first proposed in 1979 by the Marxist theorists Su Shaozhi and Feng Lanrui. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, the theory was too sensitive to be officially recognized (Sun, Chinese reassessment, pp. 183–201).

101 Zhang Xiaozhong, ‘Cong “shijie lishi” lilun kan dangdai Zhongguo shehuizhuyi de lishi dingwei (The historical place of contemporary Chinese socialism in the perspective of “world history” theory)’, Shangye jingji, 11, 2007, pp. 3–4, 33.

102 Ke Zhigang, ‘Makesi de shijie lishi lilun ji qi zai Zhongguo de dangdai jiazhi (Marx's world history theory and its contemporary value in China)’, Qiushi, 9, 2005, pp. 11–13.

103 Ibid., p. 13.

104 For a critical discussion of this debate, which includes Jerry Bentley and Arif Dirlik as major contestants, see Heather Sutherland, ‘The problematic authority of (world) history’, Journal of World History, 18, 4, 2007, pp. 491–522. For contributions on the question of inclusiveness that take China as an example, see Dominic Sachsenmaier, ‘Global history and debates of Western perspectives’, Comparative Education, 42, 3, 2006, pp. 451–70; Sachsenmaier, ‘Debates’; Dominic Sachsenmaier, ‘World history as ecumenical history?’, Journal of World History, 18, 4, 2007, pp. 465–89.

105 Qian Chengdan, ‘Xiandaihua’, p. 34.

106 Sachsenmaier, ‘World history’, pp. 468–9.

107 Nicola Spakowski, ‘Zhongguo yanjiu de guojihua: guoji Zhongguo yanjiu de jiagou ji qi jiazhi yu shijiao (The internationalization of Chinese studies: the structure of international research on China and its values and perspectives)’, Zhongguo yanjiu, 5/6, 2007, pp. 66–81. See also Arif Dirlik, ‘History without a centre? Reflections on Eurocentrism’, in Eckhardt Fuchs and Benedikt Stuchtey, eds., Across cultural borders: historiography in global perspective, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, pp. 247–84.

108 Dirlik, ‘History without a centre?’, p. 261.

109 Ibid., p. 248.